Looking Glass
by Sumei1
Summary: [Character analysis. One-shot. Crossover.] Kushina and Lily - both women with fiery red hair and tempers to match. So what happens when the two meet? Well, there's always the thing: add fire with fire and what do you get? An even larger fire! Added help from a few annoying old mirrors and the prune-woman. Disclaimer: All ideas belong to their respectable owners.


**Looking Glass**

One certain redhead was looking at the mirror, humming a soft tune under her breath. Before she'd been dragging into this new world of magic and wizardry, she'd never known the tune. What had James called it?—a wizard lullaby or something? She shrugged, continuing to drag the heavy-duty comb through her red bed-head.

The mirror was an old one—Lily had been fairly sure James had said it had belonged to his great-grandaunt or something ludicrous like that. She huffed, allowing the brush to get away with several clumps of needlessly sacrificed red strands of hair. She quietly mourned at the loss, Lily loved her hair (she was quite fond and proud of it) but sometimes it could just be a pain in the a—

"Hey! Girl!" A painting spooked Lily and cut through her thoughts. Paintings that could speak. Of course—she'd forgotten to order—_ahem_—(politely) _ask _James to remove this particular one. For good reason too. It was a whiny picture of a 'proper' woman, whose back-position was a straight as a board, and her expression was even stiffer (if that was possible—Lily eyed the witch's back suspiciously).

"What?" Lily said, contemplating whether or not to throw her comb at her face. She would _deserve _it. The witch, evidently sensing her impending actions, took away some of the acid in her voice.

"Very well . . . _child_," Lily guessed she had a lot more words than _child _at the tip of her tongue to call her. "I just _wanted_—" Lily wanted to snort. She highly _doubted _that this smug, old prune-woman had_wanted _to take a step into her room, much less talk. But she let the prune-woman (the name stuck) continue her scratchy-voiced speech.

"—I _wanted_ to inform you that you are needed soon downstairs." Her translated speech without all the mush attached: _go downstairs and finish this ridiculous hair-playing quickly, brat._

Insulted, Lily conjured up a curtain with her wand and placed it directly in front of the prune-woman. If she was going to finish her 'hair-playing' it would be without the hawk-like gaze of the prune-woman.

Looking back at the mirror, Lily raised her hand to continue brushing when she froze. She looked at her reflection and felt like shuddering. What magic was this? (an absurd question in the world she lived in, but her mind could come up with no other exclamation)

In the mirror there was a woman that resembled Lily—if Lily had blue eyes. And also—Lily checked her hand—her reflection wasn't carrying a brush (though was that some sort of _knife _in her reflection's hand? Lily wasn't sure she liked that. . .). Lily ran different ideas of what it could be through her mind, but she couldn't find anything that fit the scenario.

Muttering several countercharms, Lily waved her wand. Her brow furrowed. It wasn't any jinx or charm (talented as she was, those would have been simple to disarm)—so what was it? The woman in the mirror looked like she was getting bored of the wand waving. She seemed to have a sort of _beastly _air to her—now, Lily knew James said she could be terrifying with Lily when she was mad, but this was something else. Something different. . . . The woman's _aura _simply spoke of a different level of intensity.

"Who . . . are you?" Lily asked, uncertain she would reply. For all she knew it was just her breakfast talking—she knew she shouldn't have eaten that leftover pasta. It had been from only a _few _weeks ago—it had simply _called _to her! It wasn't _Lily's _fault! (and she had _told _James it was his chore to clean out the fridge)

So, naturally, Lily was thoroughly shocked when the other person replied—with quite a bit of sass too.

* * *

"You really want me to show you?" Kushina sighed, looking at the bright cerulean eyes that pleaded up at her.

He nodded, "Yeah!" The blonde could barely contain his excitement. He didn't care that he was acting like an excited puppy—he'd earned the right to do so! (and honestly, Minato acted like a child so often Kushina was used to the man's antics) It had taken years of convincing and pleading (and no small amount of pleading) but he'd finally managed to make the red-head agree.

"Honestly—if I didn't know any better, by the way you were pleading, I wouldn't believe you're begging to see a bunch of dusty old scrolls, Minato," Kushina huffed, crossing her arms.

"Not just _any _dusty old scrolls," Minato corrected her. "Those are the Uzumaki clan fuinjutsu scrolls!" His eyes seemed to shine more and more with each word. Kushina was slightly amused—she hadn't thought there were people this obsessed with fuinjutsu since her clan mates from . . . Uzushiogakure. Her smile faded at the thought of her home—a collection of crumbling pillars.

Minato frowned, sensing the change in mood. "Kushina. . . ." He gripped her shoulder, "I didn't mean to—"

Kushina smirked, covering her lapse with a defiant punch to the other's shoulder. Minato rubbed his sore spot, "_hey_. . . ." When he looked up, the red-head was already making her way up the stairs.

She rummaged through her closet.

"Know it's here somewhere. . . ."

_Fizz. . . ._

Kushina turned around, looking around suspiciously. The same noise sounded again, and she realized what it was. _Chakra, but from where?_

Searching the room from the flaring chakra source, her eyes locked onto a target—the tarp. Well, more of what was _under _the tarp. Minato—the annoying man he was—had decided to get her a present. He'd said "_oh, um. . . . Here Kushina! Women like gifts right? So I thought this would suit you perfectly!_" He'd then proudly presented her the item. To which, he'd gotten a punch in the face from Kushina. She'd then replied with a sharp huff and speech about how Kushina wasn't a vain sort of person and she _didn't like mirrors_. Minato had promptly apologized (fearing her wrath, of course) but to his surprise, Kushina had still kept the mirror.

Sure, the thing was rusting, creaked at its hinges, and mold or who-knew-what was creeping onto the glass surface of the corroding mirror, but it was still there (Kushina herself didn't understand why she'd kept it). Under the tarp, in Kushina's room. Kushina sneaked a peak under the heavy gray tarp, and was surprised when she saw the surface of the mirror was . . . _glowing_?

She tapped at it, and sparks of chakra flew off. Well, _that _wasn't normal. _Sorry Minato, your dusty scrolls will have to wait_. In one swift movement, she threw the tarp off, revealing the mirror to the sunlight. Careful not to the touch surface, Kushina examined the mirror, prodding it cautiously with a kunai, ready to spring back in case if there were any hidden traps (she hadn't looked at the thing for ages—who knew what Minato had stashed in it before?).

On the surface, a reflection of Kushina's scowling face looked back at her. Nothing out of the ordinary, but she couldn't shake the feeling that _something _was off. Sending a wave of chakra out, she realized the chakra had stopped . . . pulsing (or whatever had been happening) off the surface of the mirror. She touched her finger to the glass once more.

Other than a cold tingling sensation, no sparks emerged.

"Hmm. . . ." Kushina frowned, scanning the mirror.

"Who . . . are you?" A confused voice rang form the mirror along with something . . . else. _Fear_, Kushina's shinobi senses whispered to her. Kushina blinked and looked up— she had been mistaken when she'd thought the mirror only held herself.

"I'd like to know who you are too~(da)ttebane!" Kushina snapped back, in her eagerness the after-word slipped out. Only now she realized the person in the mirror didn't look exactly like her—a bit off, like an academy student who had gotten a _henge _slightly off. The woman had green eyes, and was that a _stick _in her hand?

"I-I'm," The woman in the mirror (_where else was she to be?_ Kushina wondered) looked surprised Kushina had replied. "I'm Lily Evans—no, Potter." Her voice grew in confidence as she continued speaking.

"Uzumaki Kushina~(da)ttbane!" Kushina said boldly, resisting the urge to stick out her hand for a formal greeting. How would the woman shake her hand? "You look suspiciously like me." She accused.

"What do you mean?!" This 'Lily' yelped. "I-I'm not the—you look suspiciously like _me_!"

Kushina smirked, "Oh really? I was here first!" Kushina was sure she had looked at the mirror and seen her reflection there before this . . . copy. . . . And how _dare _this person (assuming the reflection-person was a human) look like her?! She was the one and only Uzumaki Kushina. And by _one _and _only _she meant one and only.

"There can be only one~(da)ttebane!" Kushina shouted, smashing the mirror under her clenched, chakra-powered fist, temper getting ahead of her mind. Ignoring the tendrils of blood leaking down on her cut knuckles, she looked triumphantly at the mirror shards. To her surprise, the red-haired imposter was still there, her image shattered into thousands of small pieces, an impatient frown on her face. Evidently realizing what had happened, the woman waved her stick and muttered a word softly (though loud enough Kushina could pick it up).

"_Reparo_._"_

The mirror—to Kushina's surprise—flew back together; even the small slivers of glass that had gotten stuck in her hand flew out, not a speck of blood on them as they connected to the mirror.

Kushina whistled, impressed. Maybe it wasn't so bad having a duplicate in a mirror—it's not like the doppelganger was going to _leave _the mirror, right? Kushina entertained the idea of making this 'magic' person do tricks for her amusement.

* * *

Lily had been surprised.

The other red-head in the mirror—'Kushina', was a force to be reckoned with. That animal-like aura Lily had felt trickles of had exploded in a single moment as she punched the mirror. Afterwards, Lily assumed the mirror had shattered, the mirror's images that sent back to her resembling a kaleidoscope. Kushina's fiery red hair took up some triangular pieces of the mirror, while Lily also spotted Kushina's bright blue eye staring angrily out of another.

Unsure if it would work or not, waving her wand, Lily whispered the charm that was an essential when living in the Potter house, for a multitude of reasons (now including possibly-insane mirror red-heads). "_Reparo_," Flicking her wand-tip accordingly, the mirror's image rearranged until it started to look like something actually normal (as normal as you can get with magical mirrors, that is).

"You fixed it?" Kushina's eyes widened. "No way—That's impossible~(da)ttebane!"

"Ever heard of magic?" Lily asked triumphantly. She wondered what she looked like to Kushina: a stick-spinning madwoman? Wouldn't be the first time (Lily was unfortunately reminded of her first unsuccessful try at flying a broomstick).

Kushina scoffed, crossing her arms. "Complete bull! That's children's tales."

"Oh really? Then what about the mirror?" Lily considered her words. Since they _were _talking about _magic_, it was impossible to know if Kushina was really looking at a mirror. For all Lily knew, Kushina could be looking in a toilet bowl. Scrying was an odd thing.

When talking about the wizarding world, scrying was usually using reflective surfaces, oftentimes mirrors, to communicate with another item with alike qualities. It was similar to long-range video-conversation (Lily had heard some muggles had been developing that technology—she wasn't sure, it'd been forever since Petunia had actually talked to her).

"Maybe . . ." Kushina's brow furrowed. "Long-range jutsu?" She muttered to herself. "No, too chakra-taxing. . . . Considering the different settings, we're quite far away. . . . Even _I _wouldn't have the chakra to do that. . . . Hmm. . . . Unless, perhaps she's another Uzumaki? She certainly looks the part. . . but no, she said _Potter_. . . ."

Lily was getting a bit unsettled by Kushina's ramblings. Chakra? Jutsu? Uzumaki . . . she'd said that was her last name right?

"Excuse me?" Lily asked uncertainly. "Chakra?"

"Chakra—it's . . ." Kushina scratched her head. "Hm. It's a difficult concept to describe. I'll show you!" Placing her fingers together in an elaborate form, she explained earnestly, "I've never been the one for textbook reading, so I'll just give you a nice little demonstration. This is the basic hand-seal, which allow me to mold my chakra."

"Your . . . chakra?"

"Mhmm. Everyone has chakra, in the form of yin and yang— spiritual and physical— energy, most people are just unaware of it, and haven't learned to use it. When I do my hand seals, I'm combining my energies to create chakra."

"They haven't learned to use it. . ." Lily thought for a moment, "Muggles?"

Kushina stopped, concentration broken. "What are muggles?"

"Er, non-magical folk," Lily tried to explain. Perhaps Kushina was a muggle, despite all this 'chakra' nonsense? If so, she may-or-may-not-have broken a (possibly) _very _important rule by the ministry. Lily shrugged, the mirror showed spells could go through, it would be a simple matter to _obliviate_ Kushina afterwards. Either way, Kushina was proving to be an interesting conversationalist, and good company by other girls was harder to come by.

Kushina shrugged and went back to 'molding her chakra'. It just looked like she was standing still and breathing deeply. Her eyes looked up at she looked hesitant, "Er. You spoke about _magic _right?" That was an obvious key than Kushina was non-magical. Lily silently cursed. Merlin's beard what had she gotten into?

"Uhm, yeah?" Lily said uncertainly. Lily had always been a good Hogwarts student, studying diligently and getting good marks—which was the reason why she wasn't exactly jumping for joy that she had just technically broken one of the largest wizarding laws there was.

"I'll need you to throw an object at me—doesn't matter what. I'm assuming that your magic will be able to repair whatever is broken since you fixed the mirror," Kushina said calmly. "I can't do any large jutsus, unless if I want to rip the house apart. . . . Now _that _would be something to get Minato riled up," She chuckled, "Ah, he's so _adorable _when he gets irritated! Like when Jiraiya-sama came by and teased him about his horrible books. Honestly, how does that man do that for a living?" Kushina continued on for a few minutes, until Lily finally decided enough was enough, and that she had to cut to the chase already. James was going to get suspicious—she made an accusing look at the empty picture frame that lay to the side.

"What's _Icha Icha_?" Lily asked hesitantly. She didn't want to know, truthfully, it sounded uncomfortably close to some books she had found under James's dorm bed one time. After that day, she never once saw another one.

"Worst books ever." Kushina refused to speak more about it.

"Anyhow, yeah, I don't want to blow up the house or anything, so I'll just do a simple body-substitution jutsu. That's why I need you to throw something at me, so you get the idea," Kushina explained.

"Okay?" Lily raised her wand once more, and hoping she wouldn't accidentally break something inside of the room, she aimed at a pale colored pouch on the dresser. Surely that couldn't break easily, right? "_Wingardium leviosa_." She murmured softly.

Tilting her wand slightly caused the pouch to fly quickly towards Kushina, faster than she expected. The button on the top of the pouch came undone and _weapons_ of all shapes and sizes flew out of it. Lily yelped—who kept _knives_ and who knew what else inside of their _bedroom_?! The other red head was prepared though, and it wasn't the first time a barrage of weapons had been flung at her.

"_Kawarimi no Jutsu_!" Kushina shouted out, and in a puff of smoke, the weapons shredded through a mint-green pillow. Kushina herself appeared a few meters away, perfectly unharmed.

_If that's not magic—what is?! _Lily gaped. The only sign that Kushina had been affected was the devastated look on her face as she looked at the limp pillow's carcass.

"And that's just academy-level jutsu!" Kushina bragged at the sight of Lily's shock, snapping out of her mourning. "Ano. . ." Kushina waved her hand in front of the mirror, starting to become slightly worried at the other's prolonged silence. "Could you fix my pillow~(da)ttebane?" Looking to the side, almost embarrassed, she spoke: "Er, I'm kinda . . . attached to it . . . ."

"Oh, right!" Lily said, voice quivering with adrenaline. If what Kushina had done was possible for people who _couldn't_ perform magic, which was a innate ability, who knew what opportunities could open up for muggles?

"_Reparo_."

The shredded slivers of pillow stuffing and cover whirled together, needles and knives falling away from the torn materials to the ground. Seconds later, the pillow was whole again, perfect once more, ignoring the dirt stains and drool smears (ew. . .).

As Kushina stooped down to clean up her weapons, Lily couldn't help but ask, "What are those? They look . . ." What? Dangerous? Impractical? Lethal? Stupid to have in your room?

"These are my every-day weapons. I have more specialized weapons in the closet. Minato sometimes says that it's impractical, but what else am I supposed to put in it?" Kushina scoffed as if it was the stupidest thing in the world: "Imagine! Wasting a closet on _clothes_!" Lily resisted shooting a slightly guilty look at her closet, said closet being practically stuffed to the seams with many articles of clothing, most of which Lily probably wouldn't ever wear.

"Well, anyhow, since you were asking, I'll explain: so this is a 'kunai'." Kushina showed a worn down triangular blade that had a rounded hilt and a ring of metal at the base. The blade was held in her hand with practiced ease. After giving Lily a reasonable amount of time to examine the knife-like weapon, Kushina put it away in her weapons pouch.

"This is a senbon needle." She picked up a bundle of sharp needles, steel points glinting maliciously. "They aren't the best thing for close combat—as you can see." Kushina nodded at the needles. "I've never been the best at drawing and aiming fast enough, but it's required to have on you. A lot of times they're dipped in poison, but I haven't been given permits to do so." Kushina shrugged sheepishly, "I might accidentally stab someone fatally."

Lily felt a slight shiver go through her. How could Kushina say such a thing so easily?

She considered herself a very open-minded person, always finding it fun and exciting to explore and learn about new cultures, even going back to some of her old muggle communities, looking at them anew in the eyes of the witch she was, not the muggle girl from before. All different sorts of cultures had their own little quirks and rough edges, but Lily found them respectable in their own ways. Like how when she'd visited a village purely made of squibs, she'd awed over how the residents had managed to live with muggle ways, yet being the furthest you could get from an ordinary muggle. They had to survive through torment by normal wizards and witches, doomed to suffer with knowledge of magical powers that had somehow eluded them from birth, yet unable to live in the ignorant bliss that muggles had.

But this?

_The weapons. Her off-handed manner. . . ._

"Have you . . . killed people?" Lily whispered. She'd only killed the 'Death Eaters' when times called for it, and only in self-defense. In the Order of the Phoenix, she met Death Eaters often enough, but rarely did they _die_. What sort of morbid culture did Kushina live in?

Kushina shrugged, "Well, course I have! Gotta do what the mission tells you to do right?"

There was that chill again. "Mission?"

"Oh yeah, I'm a jounin so I get harder missions—like the S-rank ones. Like assassinations, espionage, infiltration, etc. Sometimes there's a shortage though and I have to get D-rank missions. That's not a lot anymore though," Kushina reconsidered it and her face wrinkled up in disgust. "Who likes weeding anyways?" (Lily resisted looking outside at her little garden that she tended to sometimes).

"But . . . how can you kill people so easily?! Human life is . . . _precious_!" Lily demanding angrily, trying to keep her voice down, yet her irritation at Kushina's misunderstanding fueling her temper (the last thing she needed was James walking in—or worse: the _prune-woman_).

Kushina stared sharply at her, "It's all for good causes! Konoha doesn't kill people for nothing!"

"What, for _money _then?" Lily scowled.

Kushina hesitated, "Sometimes yes. But most of the time it can be for protecting Konoha. Like if someone knows too much, or if there's a spy in our midst."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Lily looked at Kushina doubtfully. "What _are_ you?"

"Shinobi. A Konoha jounin." Kushina stated proudly.

Wracking her mind and unable to find anything, Lily spoke up again, "But what's this 'Konoha' you keep saying? I don't know where that is."

"Konohagakure no sato. The Village Hidden in Leaves, also known as the Hidden Leaf. That's what~ (da)ttebane," Kushina walked away from the mirror's view then stepped back in with a headband or sorts in her hands. It was made of a soft dark blue material, a metal plate sown into the middle. Showing Lily the pattern etched into the metal plate, Kushina explained, "This is the Konoha symbol—see? It's a leaf."

Hesitating slightly, Kushina went back to go through her closet, then brought out another more worn band. Holes and patches dotted all over the headband, the blue a darker shade and the edges of the metal plate was scratched and rusting. "This . . . is my Whirlpool headband. It's important to me. . . . It was my mother's." The swirling circle on the metal plate shone proudly.

"What . . . happened?" Reaching out, Lily touched then mirror's cool surface, as if she could touch the precious item.

"Wiped out. They all . . . died. . . ." Lily widened her eyes when she realized that Kushina was wiping away the start of tears. "Refugees came to Konoha— I was one of them. We were weak—relying on Konoha as we fled from the shredded ruins of our 'home'." Chuckling sadly, Kushina continued, as if ignoring that Lily was there, pouring out her memories to the person she'd just met. Lily just waited patiently and listened.

"I was such a stubborn idiot. I barely got the Konoha-styled katas and jutsus correct, I was so determined to keep the Whirlpool memories alive that I kept using the moves I'd learned back there. I was alone—I had no friends. I wasn't the friendliest person." Now tears were streaming freely down Kushina's fair face, droplets splashing onto the two headbands in her hands. Her fists tightened around them. Two villages. One person.

"And then I met Minato. He was such a sappy idiotically happy guy, you just had to assume he was an idiot." _Just like James_, Lily smiled to herself. "But he was actually somewhat intelligent!" Kushina smiled nostalgically.

As if realizing what she'd just said, Kushina recomposed herself. "I'm sorry," She smiled, embarrassed. "I didn't mean to say that much."

Lily felt a bond in her grow. Perhaps, in the fifteen minutes she'd met this odd woman, she had grown to like her. It might have been the way Kushina had so earnestly opened herself up to Lily, showing Lily her culture and ways, even her past. _Maybe even we could be friends in a different time. That would be a first—meeting someone through a mirror_, quietly chuckling to herself, Lily continued to look at Kushina.

"Hey, 'Shina, I think I like you," Lily whispered, hoping the words would soothe the red-head.

Kushina froze, staring at Lily in surprise, "You called me . . . 'Shina'?"

Suddenly Lily could feel their budding friendship starting to wilt. Did she not like the nickname? "Yeah?"

Kushina looked at Lily in a strange way, in a look of awe, "No one's called me that before. . . . _'Shina_. . . ." She rolled the word over her tongue. "I like it—"

"_Girl_."

Lily winced at the crisp tone being directed at her (really the prune-woman had such dreadful timing!). Of _all_ the times for her to come back.

Smiling almost sadly, Kushina waved. "Well I think you need to go," She gestured at the prune-woman's picture (almost unfairly, she seemed unfazed by the moving picture, unlike Lily's reaction to her 'jutsu'). "This might be the last time we talk for now. I need to leave right now too." _Perhaps to that 'Minato'? _Lily couldn't help but think of James who was waiting for her. Guilt washed over her. How long had she kept him waiting?

Turning her attention reluctantly to the prune-woman, Lily folded her hands over her chest. "So?"

"That idiot James-boy needs the forms. He forgot them."

Rolling her eyes, Lily looked on her dresser.

_What?_

Standing up and examining the wooden top of it, she swore she had left the papers there. "Hm. . . . Where are they?" An idea struck her and Lily turned to the mirror, "Hey Kushina do you see. . . ." Her voice died away as she looked at the rusted old mirror. It looked the same as before, but the red-hair in its depths definitely wasn't the one Lily had been conversing with for the past twenty minutes.

"Kushina?"

An empty silence fell upon the room (the prune-woman had apparently decided she had better things to do with her time). Lily felt like the warmth had just been taken from her. She hadn't even gotten to say good-bye. Despite Kushina's culture's ways, none of her wizarding friends had exactly been such good company (most of her Hogwarts 'friends' had slipped away when she joined the Order).

Behind her white door, she heard thumps as someone made their way up the stairs. It was James.

"Hey, Lily, you took a while, so I wondered if you found the forms yet," He said.

Sparing one glance at the mirror, Lily opened the door, "No, they might be in the kitchen."

Without looking back, Lily left the room, forgetting about the mirror. After all, when there's a war to fight, one measly magical mirror inside of a world that's already magical fades away in importance.

* * *

Feeling she had kept Minato waiting long enough, Kushina walked down the stairs, Uzushiogakure scrolls carefully tucked in her dress pouch.

"You finally found them?" Minato looked at her doubtfully. "That took an awful long time. . . ."

Kushina glared at him, "If you're considering that I lost them you're _wrong_!" Minato had long ago learned not to eavesdrop on her (amazing what a little Kyubi chakra and killing intent could do), but that didn't prevent the blond from assuming from what little things he knew about women (not much, which was surprising considering his sensei had been Jiriaya).

"Not at all," Minato shrugged, though his disbelief was still evident.

Kushina gave a sly grin, "If you think that, that proves you don't deserve to see them!" She waved them tantalizingly close to Minato's face, but out of fear of ripping them he didn't dare snatch them from her.

"Okay! Jeeze—I'm sorry Kushina," He said, slightly worried that she'd make true of her bluff. Expect the unexpected from Kushina Uzumaki.

"Fine," Kushina handed them neatly to him.

Eagerly opening them like a child with presents, Minato unraveled them carefully (though his urgency to see what was inside was still obvious). His enthusiasm drained from his face as he read through the papers. He looked through it repeatedly, making sure his eyes weren't tricking him.

"Hey, Kushina?"

"What baka?" Kushina sat on the sofa next to him.

"What are these '_Terms and Conditions_' for?"

**fin**


End file.
